Day 2: Thoughts from the Community

We begin this morning in a large circle, invited to find a partner across the room. With our partner we spend a minute in just looking at one another--if the eyes are the windows to the soul, then this is a soulful moment. Then we settle back into our chairs to reflect together on what the first day of STIA'14 has meant to the community.

"This is our tent," said one participant. "I'm so happy to be sitting here under it with you."

"I realized that people are listening," said another. "What I think of as my personal work needs to be shared."

Still another participant mentioned the creative tension between the emerging sense of spirit in the group and her own particular analytic process.

The general sense in the room is appreciation and gratitude, while it's clear that there is wrestling--wrestling with purpose, with the significant work to be done out in the world, with the wash of information and learning from the first day. Now we turn the corner into the second day of Open Space.

The theme of "Temenos," of open containers that can be sensed more than articulated, is an intentional design that has been woven throughout the conference thus far, but could also be used to describe the conference as a whole. As one member of the circle said this morning, there is something emerging, a whole being born through the shared wisdom of all.

So we remember that there are more in the community than those in the room. One reason we blog throughout the conference is to offer a window into what's happening here at STIA, for the sake of those who are "distant" today, yet close in purpose. We invite you, not simply to follow us wherever you are, but to remember yourself as a member of this community. "We" are all a part of the system, after all! What wisdom do you have to share? How will you share it?